for those that be
liver sick; and they ease cramps, convulsions, and the falling
sickness. If condited, or preserved with sugar, they are exceeding
good to be given to old and aged people that are consumed and
withered with age, and which want natural moisture." He goes on to
give an elaborate receipt how to condite the roots of Sea Holly, or
Eringos (which title is, according to Liddell and Scott, the
diminutive of _eerungos_, "the beard of a goat." Or, Eryngo has
been derived from the Greek _eruggarein_, to eructate, because the
plant is, according to herbalists, a specific against belching). With
healthy provers, who have taken the Sea Holly experimentally in
toxical doses of varying strength the sexual energies and instincts
became always depressed. This accounts for the fact that during the
Elizabethan era, the roots of the plant used _in moderation_ were
highly valued for renovating masculine vigour, such as Falstaff
invoked, and which classic writers have extolled:--

"Non male turn graiis florens eryngus in hortis
Quaeritur; hunc gremio portet si nupta virentem
Nunquam inconcessos conjux meditabitur ignes."
--_Rapinus_.

These Eryngo roots, prepared with sugar, were then called "Kissing
Comfits." Lord Bacon when recommending the yolks of eggs for
giving strength if taken with Malmsey, or sweet wine, says: "You
shall doe well to put in some few slices of Eringium roots, and a
little Ambergrice: for by this means, besides the immediate facultie
of nourishment, such drinke will strengthen the back."

Plutarch writes: "They report of the Sea Holly, if one goat taketh it
into her mouth, it causeth her first to stand still, and afterwards the
whole flock, until such [500] time as the shepherd takes it from her."
Boerhaave thought the root "a principal aperient."

Irish Moss, or _Carraigeen_, is abundant on our rocky coasts, and is
collected on the north western shores of Ireland, while some of it
comes to us from Hamburg. Its chief constituent is a kind of
mucilage, which dissolves to a stiff paste in boiling water, this
containing some iodine, and much sulphur. But before being boiled
in water or milk, the Moss should be soaked for an hour or more in
cold water. Officinally, a decoction is ordered to be made with an
ounce of the Moss to a pint of water: of which from one to four fluid
ounces may be taken for a dose.

This Lichen contains starchy, heat-giving nourishment